The Gates of Dawn
by paulinejc
Summary: Delilah Price, naturally flirty 15-year-old girl living in Manhattan learns, after being chased out of the grocery store by a psychotic cheerleader, that she is actually a demigod. And the desire to flirt is hereditary. She arrives at CHB just two weeks before the looming war everyone is nervous about, and is given a quest just when peace descends upon the demigods. OCxOC


_**REWRITTEN**_

**Setting: set during The Last Olympian - two weeks before the war**

**Enjoy.**

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PROLOGUE

Despite having been on the varsity cross-country team last year, it was still pretty difficult running through narrow alleys with nothing to guide me but the dim glow of the stars and the fear of being chased by what might sound like a pack of rabid dogs but was actually just psychotic cheerleader. Also, when we ran miles we never had to dodge obstacles like various trashcans, homesless people, and abandoned couches that the homeless people should probably sleep on instead of on the ground.

I turned a corner just to run into a dead-end and my heartbeat spiked. _Damn it, this is where I die._ I glanced to my right and thought, _not today!_ as I veered in that direction and squeezed myself in between a narrow crack between two buildings just as the cheerleader ran out and spun around angrily, looking for me.

"I'll get you, you can't hide forever!" Cami the cheerleader yelled, and I held my breath as she walked by the crack I was squished in.

Honestly, I had no idea why she was even chasing me in the first place. I don't recall having ever done anything that would make her so angry at me, but maybe she was just upset because I innocently flirted with a guy she had a secret crush on? Even if that was the case, which I highly doubted was, she had to let it go because it was already halfway through summer break. I had only gone to the grocery store to buy a midnight snack when I turned an aisle and saw Cami furiously charging towards me. That was when the instincts in me screamed at me to run, and I ran even faster when I turned around and saw that her hair had turned from sunny blonde to fiery red.

"You're not going to win, you demigod scum!" she hurled another strange insult my way.

If my English was correct, then that meant she was calling me a half-god half-human. Cami clearly belonged in a mental asylum.

Either way, I was scared of her. Sometimes when I saw her at school - even before she went bat-shit crazy and started chasing me and trying to kill me - her warm brown eyes would turn blood red, and it had happened enough times for me to believe I was't going crazy.

I felt dread as her steps slowed right in front of me. It was dark in the alleyway, so I couldn't see where she was facing, but I was sure if she hadn't found me yet she would soon because I was in the most obvious hiding space in this dead-end. She might be scary and run super fast, but she wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. Hell, the entire Crayola factory.

My fingers curled around the large kitchen knife I ran out the grocery store with when Cami first started chasing me.

My heart stopped and I felt icy all over. A pair of glowing red eyes stared straight back at me. Cami's face was paper-white and shone in the darkness. Her lips peeled back into a half-snarl half-grin, baring her fangs at me.

"There you are," she hissed at me. She reached a clawed hand towards me as she crooned, "Are you going to come out, or do we have to do this the hard way and-"

I interrupted her by stabbing her hand, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream. When she snatched her hand back and lunged forwards, I didn't think twice to lodge the knife deep in her throat. She clawed at her throat as black liquid spurted out of her wound.

Not waiting to see what happens, I kicked her in the chest and as soon as she stumbled to the floor, burst out of the narrow crack and ran. I didn't know where I was running to but the twinkling stars whispered to me and I felt a lulling feeling of complete and utter security under their watchful gazes.

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**yay, i'm back! after i think 2 years of being wiped off the face of earth... again, if you are my early followers and are wondering what happened to 'the romans read tlo' then you can stop wondering now - yay! ****_because i deleted it_****. yep. sorry. i'm sad too. extremely sad. still crying. please don't leave me. but ya, i hope you guys enjoy this. i just wanted to get back into the fanficcing mood after creating my own worlds deemed too tiring (although i'm still trying to power through the book i'm working on rn). SUPER LONG A/N BUT I JUST THOUGHT I SHOULD KINDA EXPLAIN LOL dw i'm not one to write a/n's so don't expect another one any time soon unless it's really important.**


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